Random Ranting of a Sun Devil

Dave Chappell

09/18/2006

What more does this team have to do in order to get people into the stands? I am not even talking about getting our attendance into the top rankings in the nation. I am talking about at least getting a decent crowd. Here are some of the college football teams who are leading Arizona State in Percentage of Stadium Capacity Filled

The list goes on and on as the Devils are ranked 79th in the nation in percentage attendance at 73% capacity filled. How absolutely embarrassing is that to see? A team that has just finished up winning back to back bowl games, a team with a great offensive tradition and a history of exciting games, can't even get three quarters of their stadium filled. I understand we were not blessed with having LSU and a decent Big 10 team in Northwestern on the schedule, but is that really a logical excuse for it being so empty? I want to know what exactly our fans are expecting out of this team. I want to know what about winning back to back bowl games for the first time in 20 years isn't exciting enough to go out and get to the game.

I feel that 75% of the blame is on the fans, 20% on the media, and 5% on the coaches and the team. We had a very successful media and advertisement blitz over this summer which got rave reviews from everyone, yet the attendance is no better. I do not have any answers as to how to fix the problem besides winning at least 11 games and fighting for a BCS game. I would be able to say win 9 or 10 games, but when we were on pace for those totals two years ago the stadium was not still selling a large amount of tickets.

If the fans are not going to fill the seats, then why not just expand the student section? I saw the Colorado student section design and I wondered if it were possible to move us to have the same system. USC is taking seats away from students for lack of ticket sales, and increased profit. Why doesn't ASU give seats to our students until the valley residents realize that there is actually a good football team here in Sun Devil Stadium worth paying 20 bucks to go see on a beautiful Saturday night. We have natural home field advantage with the weather here in Tempe, we are beginning to have a consistent home field advantage with our student section, but until we can have the entire stadium start to fill up a bit more our home field advantage will never be fully utilized.

On a side note regarding our fans in Boulder for the Colorado game. First, it is hilarious to me that our fans choose to stand the entire game on their seats at road games, yet manage to stand up on only a few occasions at a home game. I understand that some of the people standing are also fans that would enjoy standing more at home, but I guarantee a majority of our fans who made the trip are also the same fans sitting on their hands at home. Can we make our minds here folks? I would have enjoyed sitting down for at least one game this season.

I loved the spirit in Colorado and the crowd was amazing, but let's translate that into our home games everyone. If you can travel thousands of miles to stand up on your seats in Boulder, you should be able to muster the strength to do it here in Tempe when your seats are 20 minutes away.

Second, it is amazing how many people so blindly hate Coach Koetter. I find it extremely funny when someone fumbles the ball someone yells at Koetter, when Rudy overthrows his receiver they yell at Koetter, when someone misses a block or has a false start they yell at Koetter, when someone misses a Field Goal they blame Koetter, when someone scores on us they blame Koetter, when someone in our section decides to fart the most awful fart imaginable they all blame Koetter. It has gotten to a point of just blind ignorance and hatred on the part of our fans.

I understand that everyone has a right to their own point of view on Koetter, and I understand how people can be upset at some of the things he has done with this team, but what I can't understand is how people can still complain about things when we are winning games. We may not be winning games in typical ASU fashion through the air, but we have brought an entirely new dimension to the desert in a defense that is able to win games. Our defense is the sole reason we are 3-0 so far this season, and that is 3 more than I have seen since I have started following Arizona State football.

Our recruiting class has obviously improved this past year, with many true freshman and new recruits already making an impact on games. Dirk has brought in the assistant coaches needed to get this program over the top, but it will never happen until the fans uphold their part of the bargain and start showing up to the games. Hate Coach Koetter all you want, but support the program at all costs. Coaches come and go, but the program will stay forever as long as people stay loyal to it.